Indiana School District Provides Home Drug Testing Kits for Parents of Middle School Students

In Indiana, the Hempfield Area School District is the first district in the state to distribute home drug testing kits for the parents of their sixth- and seventh-graders. The home drug testing kits will be provided for free, allowing the parents the ability to randomly test their children for drugs at no cost.

The home drug kits will test for 10 drugs, including synthetic opiates, pain medication, cocaine, methamphetamines, amphetamines, heroin and methadone. The parents will be given test strips which are to be submerged into the child’s urine sample. Within three to eight minutes a color-coded result will appear.

Neither parent or student will know in advance when to conduct the test. Parents will receive random alerts of the time of the test. One to three random notices will be giving with a year.

The home drug testing kits are optional for the parents but the school board President Randy Stoner is encouraging parents to contemplate it. During the schools open house In September parents will be given the chance to sign up. Information will also be given at student orientation. In the past Stoner has created the Drug Awareness Committee for the schools. This committee educates students and parents about the dangers of substance abuse.

“I’m pushing (drug testing) for no other reason than the stuff’s bad,” Stoner stated. “One bad choice, and a whole family is ruined forever.”

The home drug testing kits will be provided by CANDLE Inc., which is a nonprofit substance abuse prevention group. Norma Norris, the executive director of CANDLE Inc., stated that the drug tests are popular with parents who like the idea of home testing but don’t want to choose the time to conduct it.

Norris also stated that marijuana is the most likely drug used by teens, with prescription medications coming in second. She stated that teens rarely experiment with other addictive illegal drugs if they have never tried marijuana.